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Under the US Marine Mammal Protection Act, common bottlenose dolphins along the United States Atlantic coast are managed as a series of 17 distinct stocks. To determine the status of each stock, the Potential Biological Removal (PBR) is compared with anthropogenic removals, primarily as a result of fisheries bycatch. Estimates of abundance, with associated measures of variance, are required to generate the PBR for each stock. The objectives of the current study were to estimate abundance for the Southern North Carolina Estuarine System Stock (SNCESS) of common bottlenose dolphins and to better define the southern boundary of this stock. To meet these objectives, photo-identification surveys were conducted during the summer and winter of 2014 in estuarine and nearshore coastal waters in southern North Carolina. The surveys extended 25km South of the defined southern stock boundary, along the northern South Carolina coast. One mark and one recapture survey were conducted for each season. Each survey was completed in four or five days and covered over 300km of survey tracklines. Dorsal fin images were processed and managed using FinBase, and only images of suitable quality and distinctiveness were used for estimates of abundance. A three-step decision tree was used to assign each dolphin group to either the SNCESS or an adjacent coastal stock, based on sighting location, ranging patterns derived from matches to photo-identification catalogues and statistical modelling. Only sightings classified as SNCESS were used to estimate stock abundance. Abundance estimates were calculated using three approaches: the Chapman modification to the Lincoln-Petersen method, package Rcapture in program R and program MARK 6.2. The most parsimonious approach was the Chapman LP method yielding an estimate of 272 dolphins (95% CI 189--390, CV = 0.32) in the summer of 2014. The distribution of SNCESS dolphins shifted South in the winter and several individuals were observed up to 70km southwest of the currently recognised southern boundary. The results of this study support the current definition of the SNCESS but suggest revisions to the southern boundary. The SNCESS is the smallest bottlenose dolphin stock off the East coast of the USA and is at risk of population decline as a result of fisheries-related mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers and policy makers have proposed "smart cities" as one approach to an evolutionary transformation in urban infrastructure and management, focusing on optimizing planning and coordination through information technology systems and real-time data. How does the smart city approach compare with a potentially competing approach-ecological wisdom (EW), which is defined as a property of good design requiring minimal ecological and social intervention? Do the two approaches offer potential for productive synthesis for planning practice? We analyze academic, corporate, public intellectual, and public policy sources to present a comparative review of smart cities with "wise cities," based on an EW framework. Through our analysis, we derive basic definitions of these two planning approaches, outline the general goals and objectives of each, and develop an overall multi-tiered framework of analysis for both approaches. We conclude by proposing potential areas of synthesis, applications for planning practice, and areas of future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores Oregon’s attempts to transcend the boom/bust cycles of its historically natural resource–based economy to establish a more diversified, resilient economy based upon advanced manufacturing and sustainable technology and practices. Drawing upon Fredrick Turner’s and Harold Innis’s theses of North American development, I explore Oregon’s economic dynamics through state and federal data and Oregon’s recent economic initiatives. Results reflect an Oregon still reliant upon natural resource and industrial commodities, leaving it highly vulnerable to global markets. Efforts toward “greening” the state’s economy, although embryonic, show signs of setting Oregon on a more independent, self-reliant economic trajectory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessments of bottlenose dolphin stocks rely on current information about the distribution and abundance of specific populations. We partnered with two ecotourism dolphin watch businesses to investigate bottlenose dolphins along the northern South Carolina coast. The temporal and spatial distribution of dolphins was examined by comparing dorsal fin images from research-based surveys with photo-identification efforts from commercial dolphin watch groups. Matches between survey locations and times revealed patterns of seasonal residency, potential migratory dispersal between seasons, and variable patterns for home range size. An enhanced understanding of the structure of local populations will contribute to the management of local fisheries, ecotour operations, and coastal ocean health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers and advocates are calling for ecosystem services management to advance from theory to implementation. To do so, they argue, requires two things: information on the science and practice ecosystem services management to be more widely developed and distributed, and support for ecosystem services management be incorporated into decision-making. These changes require adding to urban ecology an understanding of the political and information relationships supporting work in this field. To gain insight into these relationships I surveyed the national membership of the Society for Municipal Arborists about their efforts in managing municipal green space to produce ecosystem services. A significant percentage of respondents reported their organizations currently engaged in managing green space assets to produce ecosystem services and predicted such activities would increase over time. Foresters noted they relied on public and informal peer relationships as primary information sources in these efforts and reported little interface with private sector entities, viewing the latter, rather as most likely to constrain their efforts to enhance the production of ecosystem services. While foresters noted that they sought information from public and academic sources, the foresters themselves were less frequently sought out for their expertise. Respondents, however, foresaw becoming engaged in more reciprocal relationships around information exchange. The private sector’s absence in these relationships suggests insufficient legal and regulatory structures necessary to support private engagement in the growing demand for urban ecosystem services. The broad base of local grassroots and public support, however, suggest the emergence of constituencies that could lay the basis for new coalitions to advance green infrastructure and its related ecosystem services into the mainstream of municipal resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motile organisms are thought to play a role in biogeochemical cycles in tidal systems, but few studies have addressed links between animal activities and dissolved nutrients. Our observations and experiments indicated that movements, feeding, and excretion by fishes and shrimps resulted in subsidies of and to intertidal salt marsh creeks. During low tide, isolated pools inhabited by nekton became biogeochemical hotspots with up to fivefold increases in water column nutrient concentrations. In field experiments, simultaneous measurements in artificial pools and an adjacent natural intertidal pool demonstrated that nekton were sources of during day and night, contributing 17-109% of the net increase in and 3-18% of the in the natural intertidal pool. Nekton residing in intertidal pools generated the equivalent of 5% of the total imported to the creek. At night, nekton in pools contributed the equivalent of 12% of the and 4% of the imported from the subtidal channel. As the tide flooded the intertidal creek, nutrient enriched pool water was pulsed up the creek and into the intertidal basin. Tidally controlled patterns of nekton movements and feeding result in retention and reintroduction of nutrients to the upper reaches of intertidal creek basins. Accordingly, nekton contribute to the recycling of nutrients through a positive feedback loop that may enhance primary production and invertebrate prey within salt marsh creek basins. We conclude that nekton can be important and underappreciated contributors of dissolved nutrients in tidal systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Our essay responds to the critique of Dooling et al. (Urban Ecosystems in press, 2007) of our previously published article "Goal attainment in urban ecology research: a bibliometric review 1975-2004 (Young and Wolf, Urban Ecosystems, 9:179-193, 2006). We identify our critics' concerns as rooted in a project of deconstruction of scientific inquiry and a redefinition of the boundaries separating academic disciplines from each other and science from society. While we identify important differences with our critics, we largely support this critical project, as evidenced by our previously published empirical research. In exploring the relationship between critical and positivist approaches to urban ecology research and how we might work toward an integration of nature and society in thought and action, we defend pragmatic approaches to empirical research as well as disciplinary projects as legitimate and essential elements of urban ecology research. We argue in favor of theoretical and methodological pluralism. Rather than define urban ecology through exclusionary projects that would limit the scope and significance of urban ecology research, we reaffirm our call for diverse sets of actors inside and outside university settings to engage and support each other in order to develop and strengthen analysis and pursuit of sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activity patterns, diet, and shelter site use were compared between two species of moray eels, the spotted moray, Gymnothorax moringa, and the purplemouth moray, Gymnothorax vicinus, in the shallow backreef habitat of the Belize Barrier Reef. We tracked eels tagged with acoustic transmitter tags, analyzed stomach contents, and surveyed shelter sites in a 150-m by 250-m survey area of patch reefs and coral rubble. The study site supported primarily subadult to early adult eels (379-947 mm TL). We made 490 G. raoringa and 344 G. vicinus sightings in 74 census days. Shelter site use was similar for both species. Gymnothorax moringa left shelters nearly twice as often as G. vicinus (62.5% of nights vs 36.4%). Both species moved primarily at night and ranged less than 10 m to approximately 100 m from shelter for periods less than 1 h to more than 9 h. Forays were mainly in the open grassbed away from patch reefs, rubble, or other shelter. Gymnothorax moringa fed nearly twice as often as G. vicinus (39.4% empty stomachs versus 70.0%), consistent with the difference in activity patterns of tagged fish. Prey included fishes (primarily wrasses), small crabs, and octopus; however, G. moringa specialized on small crabs, and G. vicinus specialized on fish. Gymnothorax vicinus moved and fed primarily on nights with inclement weather, whereas G. moringa did so on both calm and inclement nights. Fish consumption increased on inclement nights for both species, and crab consumption increased on calm nights. Piscivory by G. vicinus appears to have been enhanced by their feeding on inclement nights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed a model to estimate the proportion of annual primary production required to support bottlenose dolphins within the 32-km⊃2 North Inlet salt marsh creek system in South Carolina, U.S.A. The estimated annual prey consumption by dolphins was compared to the total annual production of prey available to dolphins, as determined from estimates of annual primary production, trophic transfer efficiencies, and the mean trophic level of prey. A best estimate range of 3.2%-6.8% of the total annual primary production of the North Inlet system was required to support an average population of only six dolphins (maximum range of 0.4%-7.0%). Dolphins were estimated to consume 11.1-14.2 metric tons of fish (wet weight) each year in North Inlet. The proportion of North Inlet primary production required to support dolphins increased dramatically during the winter months, when primary production declined but dolphin numbers remained similar. This period was marked by a decline in the abundance of available prey species and by a shift in the creek utilization patterns of dolphins. Despite the numerical scarcity of dolphins in the system, they appear to have a significant ecological impact and may be important predators of overwintering prey species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]